Music playback can be accomplished using loudspeakers. Loudspeakers can be designed as general purpose loudspeakers or specialized loudspeakers, wherein specialized loudspeakers may be optimized to produce sound in a selected frequency range. For example, subwoofer loudspeakers are optimized to emit low-pitched audio frequencies known as bass.
An audio recording may comprise more than one audio channel, for example a stereo recording comprises two channels, left and right. Playing back a stereo recording thus advantageously employs at least two loudspeakers to replicate the left and right channels to create a stereo listening experience for a listener. More advanced audio recordings may comprise further channels. For example, a five-channel surround recording may comprise a left channel, a centre channel, a right channel, a left surround channel and a right surround channel. To create the intended surround listening experience, these channels would optimally be reproduced by loudspeakers positioned in a correct way with respect to the listener. A typical agreement of loudspeaker placement is to place loudspeakers at equal acoustic delay and to equal level at the listening position, and into certain angles and heights relative to the listener. A typical interpretation of the equal delay is equal distance, valid when all loudspeakers have equal internal latency for passing the electronic input signal to acoustic output.
When controlling a multi-loudspeaker system, loudspeakers may be arranged to be controllable using electrical signals exchanged between the loudspeakers and a control device, such as for example a computer. A set of communications connections may interconnect the control device and the loudspeakers. From the point of view of the control device, loudspeakers may be assigned identifiers to enable communication with a specific loudspeaker, to pass information relating individually to specific loudspeakers. For example, a user may employ manual electric switches in the loudspeakers to configure each loudspeaker with an identifier that is unique within the multi-loudspeaker system in question. An example of a manual electric switch is a dip switch.
Subsequent to a loudspeaker being assigned an identifier, manually by the user, the control device may inquire, via a communication connection arranged between the control device and the loudspeaker, the identifier from the loudspeaker. Thus the user may assign identifiers to loudspeakers in the multi-loudspeaker system to facilitate individual control of loudspeakers comprised therein.